Nurse testifies about Vacaville rape victim's injuries

Testimony in the jury trial for a Vacaville man charged with the assault and rape of a Bay Area woman in 2011, continued on Tuesday in Solano County Superior Court.

Howard K. Forbes, 39, is alleged to have met the reportedly intoxicated young woman at an Oakland bar and driven her to his Vacaville home, where hours of abuse and multiple sexual assaults took place. The victim previously testified that she had gone out to celebrate a friend's birthday by bar-hopping in Oakland on Sept. 24, 2011, and awoke in the early morning hours of Sept. 25, 2011, in an unknown location with a man on top of her.

The female victim, referred to as Jane Doe in court proceedings, identified Forbes as the man who she woke up to having sex with her. The victim also testified that she remembered being strangled and raped at one point.

On Tuesday, a nurse who treated the victim testified to the injuries she had when taken to a Martinez hospital. The victim sustained a black eye, bruising on her neck, arms and under her chin.

A woman who last saw the victim at an Oakland bar also testified on Tuesday. The victim had not sustained any injuries during the course of the evening out with friends and did not appear too drunk to care for herself, according to testimony.

The trial is set to resume today in the Fairfield courtroom of Judge E. Bradley Nelson.

Forbes remains in Solano County Jail, with bail set at $5.25 million. He is charged with kidnapping to commit rape, sodomy, assault, two counts of oral copulation by force and three counts of rape by means of force. A number of the charges carry an enhancement for great bodily injury and prosecutors allege that Forbes has a prior conviction for a lewd act.